#who took over that maternal role after alyssas death | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

domhovasse · 6 years

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We'll wish we could come back to these days.

Laos was incredible. I had heard amazing things going into it, and it absolutely did not disappoint. We caught an overnight bus from Chiang Mai to Nong Khai, a city right on the border of Thailand and Laos, got our visas on arrival, and took a bus across the border to Vientianne. Once there, we bartered with a tuktuk driver (we were becoming professional at bartering), who took us to the bus station. Our timing was impeccable - we got the last 2 seats on the bus, and it took off about 10 minutes after we boarded. We arrived in the beautiful town of Vang Vieng around dinner time, checked-in to our hostel and then went for a little walk. We ended up at Smile Bar, a tranquil, outdoor bar, where we spent the next few hours sitting in hammocks along the river, watching the sun set behind the mountains, with a beer and a baguette sandwich in hand. It was the nicest little “welcome to Laos.” That night we walked around town a little, and stopped at a bar for a little game of beer pong.

The entire following day was spent on a scooter, exploring the countryside, going into caves, and jumping into lagoons. It was so magical, and felt amazing to be surrounded by beautiful mountains again. That evening, we walked around town some more before getting dinner, and then returning to the same bar as the previous night. We ended up sitting at down at a table and making friends with this couple from Paris, who were super sweet! The next day, we partook in a tubing/river bar crawl. Vang Vieng is pretty well known for it, although the government had to crack down a couple years ago because the yearly death toll among travellers was at an all time high. We essentially spent the entire day floating along the river and stopping at a couple bars along the way. The rest of the evening was spent eating, socializing, and trying to recover from our long & very crazy day. Alyssa’s phone took a little swim during our tubing adventure, so she was mourning its death and we were hoping it would make a full recovery after a few days spent in a bag of rice. (Fun fact: a dry bag does not serve it’s purpose if it isn’t sealed shut.) Both of us had already purchased tickets to the famous “Jungle Party”, which neither of us were too keen on anymore. We went anyways, just to check it out, but left not too long after, as we were exhausted from our crazy day, and not big fans of the deep house music being played.

The following morning, we checked out of our hostel, hopped on a minivan bus, and began the long journey to Luang Prabang. Laos doesn’t have proper highways so a 200km drive took almost 7 hours. We finally arrived in the evening, checked-in to our hostel, and went to get some drinks at Utopia, a nice bar along the Mekong River, and walked around town for a bit before sitting down at a restaurant to eat dinner. Before heading to sleep, we took a walk across town to a bar, where we ran into 2 australian guys from our hostel room. Our second day, we slept in, and then spent the majority of the day walking around, eating and exploring. In the evening, we walked up to a temple and lookout spot as the sun was setting over the valley. It was so so pretty and honestly made me fall in love with Laos.

The following day, we woke up quite early, ate breakfast at our hostel, and went on a half day excursion to the Kuang Si waterfalls, which was easily one of the prettiest things I’ve ever experienced. Thanks to our tolerance to cold BC water, we were brave enough to jump in and spend some time swimming in the falls. There was also a bear rescue sanctuary, so we spent some time watching them. We got back to the city in the early afternoon, got some sandwiches for lunch, and Alyssa decided to hang out at the hostel, while despite the scorching heat, I went to check out Wat Xieng Thong, since I hadn’t visited a Laotian temple yet. That evening, we took it easy again, wandering around the market area to grab some food and souvenirs. On our last morning, I woke up early to catch the Alms Giving Ceremony (a sacred Lao tradition) before sunrise, and then we got a tuktuk to the airport, where we caught our short flight to Vietnam.

Next up was Vietnam. We had pretty high hopes for Vietnam, and I can fully understand the hype now. The only regret I have is not planning our days/transportation better, because we had to skip a few places that were highly recommended by several friends. Oh well - you can’t do it all, and I definitely plan on going back hopefully one day soon! We decided to begin in the north and make our way to the south, stopping at all the major stops along the way, starting with Hanoi. This was a super cool, bustling city, with an old city center where I could walk around for days on end. The shops in the center were all grouped together by category for example there was a bamboo street, a lantern street, a stationary street, etc. and there are so many great museums to visit. The French influence in this city was pretty visible, even in the way locals sat outside of cafes/restaurants, creating a sort of ‘terrace’ - which obviously made me love it even more. The coffee scene was HUGE here, which Alyssa and I fully embraced, although their traditional coffee is served with condensed milk, which Alyssa found way too sweet. Our first day, after arriving, Alyssa went out to buy a new phone while I stayed back to catchup on some TV shows and social media. We met up for lunch and the went to Maison Centrale (Hoa Lo Prison), an old prison used by the French colonists in French Indochina for political prisoners, and later by North Vietnam for U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. In the evening, we got dinner on this street with tons of bars and restaurants, and then participated in our hostel’s pubcrawl. On our way home that night, we got introduced to the most life-changing Banh Mi sandwiches ever. My life actually has not been the same since.

The following day we went on a waking tour, which brought us to all the major sights, giving us an overview of the city and highlighting some important history, including the turbulent relationship that Vietnam has had with both the French and the Chinese over the years. Considering my heritage, I had a nice little awkward laugh at this information. We then visited the Women’s museum, which taught us about everything from customs/rituals, to the role of women during the war, to their role in modern day society. It was so well curated and ended up being one of the highlights of our trip. In the evening, we decided to check out a water puppet show, which originated in Hanoi, then got some delicious bun cha for dinner, before participating in our hostel’s pub crawl (again). The following morning was quite slow, first switching hostels, and then we spent the entire day on foot, between Alyssa wanting to do a bit of shopping, and me stopping at every single bank, trying to withdraw money. In the afternoon we stopped to take some pictures at ‘Train Street’, a very narrow, residential street with a train track running through it. We were there for a while, but unfortunately weren’t lucky enough to see a train pass by. Eventually, we made our way back to the old city center and got dinner at a hole in the wall restaurant filled with locals and non-English menus, before getting to bed early.

We spent the next 2 nights and 3 days on a Ha Long Bay cruise, taking in the beautiful scenery by boat and kayak, with a night spent on Cat Ba island. It’s a bit of a touchy subject, because essentially we got scammed, but in the end, we made some awesome friends and made a good time of it. (And we ended up getting a partial refund, after much arguing.) After arriving back in Hanoi, we grabbed our luggage, got dinner with some cruise friends, and then caught our overnight bus North to SaPa, to spend 2 days trekking through villages and rice fields with a local, & staying the night in her family’s home. We hiked a total of 20km over 2 days, with our personal Hmong tour guide, learning about her life and the lives of the Hmong people. This was definitely an experience I’ll never forget, and one that taught me a lot! We spent an extra evening and night in SaPa, which was spent visiting the market, wandering the streets, and freezing our asses off. (It was -2 degrees!) In hindsight, we should’ve taken an overnight bus back to Hanoi instead of wasting a day in transit, because our bus back to Hanoi the following morning ended up being quite delayed, and then we got scammed by a taxi driver who had a rigged meter. It was another one of our low points on the trip, and put us both in a terrible mood, but in retrospect, it wasn’t that much money.

Next was Hoi An, where we spent most of our days walking the cute, lantern-filled streets, taking pictures, browsing the markets, and getting clothes custom made. We also got manicures one day and spent the afternoon at the beach. It honestly was one of, if not THE cutest city I’ve ever been to! It’s not very big, but I could’ve spent days on end walking around. The city’s even prettier at night, and one evening, we went on a nice little romantic boat ride along the river; it was soooo cute! There were also some of our cruise friends in Hanoi at the same time as us so we all went out to a bar together one night. On our last day, Alyssa and I split off and went on separate excursions: Alyssa a cooking class, and I, a tour of the famous My Son ruins. We met back up at our hostel in the evening, and spent the rest of our last night getting dinner, and socializing at our hostel before getting to bed early.

We woke up bright and early the next morning to catch our flight to Ho Chi Minh, which was both an eye-opening and very educational stop on our trip. We spent most of our time in museums, and walking around, learning about the history, and eating A LOT. I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like to live in Saigon in the 70s when GongGong (my maternal grandpa) was living there. After checking into our hostel in Ho Chi Minh, I wandered around a little, and went to the market to get some lunch, while Alyssa got some extra sleep since she was feeling sick again. We met up at the Independent Palace, which was the home and workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and then spent some time at the War Memorial Museum, which was quite a heavy, sobering experience, especially the exhibition on Agent Orange. We spent the rest of the evening walking around, down the rich shopping/hotel street, then to the river, and eventually returning home to get dinner close to our hostel.

The following day was super chill. After breakfast, we headed across town to Chinatown and the Binh Tay market, which was actually under renovation and therefore relocated into big storage containers. We wanted to get lunch there, but we saw a huge rat run past us and immediately squealed & turned around. We ended up going back into town to get a late lunch at Ben Thanh street food market, before doing a bit of shopping in the area. From there we went to a sky bar for some rooftop drinks and watch the sunset over the city.

We also spent half a day on a trip to the Cuchi Tunnels, and actually got to crawl through them, which was also quite eye opening. I’m not someone who easily gets claustrophobic, but I was starting to feel anxious after a minute; I really don’t know how people stayed underground for hours on end. The rest of the day was spent walking around and browsing markets for cheap finds. We got our final Vietnamese dinner at the market, and then spent our last night together going to a bar and dancing the night away with one of our roommates.

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